The Trojans struggled a lot when they had the ball and struggled to put many drives together in a 21-7 loss to Georgia Tech in the Sun Bowl Monday afternoon.

USC was held to only 205 yards of total offense (107 passing, 98 rushing) and only 10 first downs for the game. The seven points is the least amount of points the Trojans scored in a game this season and the only time they scored less than 10 points in a game in 2012.

The Trojans were also only 3 of 15 on third down, with a lot of 3rd-and-longs, and committed three turnovers against a Georgia Tech defense that was ranked 79th in the nation in scoring defense giving up 29.92 points per game.

USC's offense was averaging over 400 yards a game coming into the Sun Bowl. However, most of that was with senior quarterback Matt Barkley, who didn't play Monday with an injured shoulder.

"Very surprising day," Trojans head coach Lane Kiffin said. "I thought we would play much better on offense today. I thought we had two great weeks of practice. The guys were really into it. I thought our defense for a cold, windy day like that, played very physical on turf. The story line came down to our inefficiency on offense. It starts with the head coach."

Trojans redshirt quarterback Max Wittek was making his second-straight start for USC after the injury to Barkley. Wittek was 14 of 23 for 186 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions in his first start against No.

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1 Notre Dame on Nov. 24 and went just 14 of 36 for 107 yards, a touchdown and three interceptions.

Wittek said he tried to stay positive throughout the whole game and felt like he got in a rhythm a couple of times during the game.

"They played a good game on defense," Wittek said. "They got pressure when they needed to get pressure, they covered really well. I don't think there was anything particularly different from the Notre Dame game. They had a plan for us and they executed that plan well."

USC only had 116 total yards of offense and only four first downs in the first half. The Trojans opened up the second half going 3-and-out on their first five possessions, including turning the ball over downs at the Georgia Tech 38-yard line with 2:42 left in the third quarter and down 14-7. USC also failed to take advantage of great field position after recovering a fumble on the Georgia Tech 44 before the four-and-out drive.

The Trojans finally did get some offensive going in the fourth quarter and were in the red zone three times during the game. USC scored on its first trip inside the Georgia Tech 20, but down 21-7 in the fourth quarter, Wittek was intercepted by the Yellow Jackets' Quayshawn Nealy in the end zone with 6:22 left in the ballgame.

Wittek was once again picked off in the end zone, this time by Jamal Golden, with 1:04 left when the Trojans needed a touchdown for any chance of coming back in the game.

The Trojans' top receivers Marqise Lee and Robert Woods, who announced after the game that will forgo his senior season and make himself available for the NFL Draft, were held to 44 and 31 receiving yards respectively. USC did get 96 yards on 17 carries from running back Silas Redd, which was above his season average.

"At the end of the day, obviously we weren't very efficient," Kiffin said. "We didn't cause them any issues, but at the end of the day they didn't miss many tackles. I thought they tackled really well. They're playing with a lot of two high safeties there and they're winning some matchups up front."

Kiffin said he takes 100 percent of the responsibility on how the team played in the Sun Bowl and the entire season. A season that many thought USC would be contending for a national championship.

"We can't be 7-6, not at SC," Kiffin said. "That's not our expectation, that's not why we came here and obviously we have some work to do to get that fixed. We got to continue to recruit, continue to get better and obviously coach better."

Contact Mark Rudi at mrudi@alamogordonews,com. Follow him on Twitter @mrudi19

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